Saturday: John left a sizeable portion of roast beef uneaten this week. I had a few potatoes that were sprouting pretty quickly. I trimmed them well. Thawed the beef juices I'd cooked the roast in and then made a lovely pot of roast beef hash. We're rather low on groceries overall at the moment so I opened a can of green beans and sliced oranges. It felt a little bit like a challenge menu, lol, but it was good and it filled us up.
I made chicken salad from about 1 1/2 cups of the chicken I pulled from the carcasses I boiled yesterday. I'm sorry to say that the rotisserie chicken that was strongly herbal was still strongly herbal but it was masked well enough in the salad. I made enough for sandwiches two times more.
I took a nap, lying down on the bed in a pool of sunshine. On a cooler, blustery day, I felt much like a cat with all that lovely warm sun upon my back and a cozy bed to lie upon. Bliss!
I set up a dozen outfits this morning and put them in the front of the closet. I came up with a few ideas that were fresh after accepting another blogger's challenge to pull forward some of those things we seldom wear and make outfits we'd wear. I was rather pleased with how well these things came together.
Sunday: Slept incredibly well last night and so I woke a bit earlier this morning. I moved my Bible study materials over next to the window in the living room and settled there to do my study. I do like being near a window first thing in the morning.
Made a substantial breakfast of eggs and toasts for us this morning to see us through church service and a few errands after.
We carried off trash while we were on our way out.
After church we went to do errands. John got a haircut. I was meant to be picking up my free items from Kroger, but no luck there. Not one item was available. I did find preferred pet foods on sale and got those. Bananas and lettuce and a Sunday paper pretty much were all my purchases. I looked over any number of other items but decided against all of them in the end as I can truly buy them for less elsewhere.
Offered to buy us lunch. My blood sugar dropped a wee bit and I was in need of something to balance things out. I paid out of my pocket money.
We brought home leftovers to reheat for supper.
John decided to wash a load of clothes to hang on the line since it was so nice and breezy out.
I washed a full load of dishes in the dishwasher. I allowed them to air dry.
Monday: Not sure where the day went off to today, but it left me behind! Not a lot got done and I dislike to lose a Monday.
I cleaned our bathroom well this morning, including using the shower spray (equal parts Dawn dish detergent and vinegar) on the shower.
Made two pans of chicken enchiladas from the rest of the boiled chicken meat. One for today's meal and one for a future date.
I didn't want to put cheese atop our pineapple salads so I used one of the little cups of cottage cheese I'd bought for John's lunch. This particular cottage cheese has pineapple in it too and unfortunately wasn't as thick as pineapple but it was okay for eating our meal.
Hurried through getting the bills finished up (stamped and addressed, checks signed) and we went down to John's work to pick up his check, went by bank to make a deposit and dropped off bills.
John stopped to fill his car with gasoline.
John went into the grocery and bought chips and ice cream. This is something he does now and then on pay day. He likes a treat on pay day. I will say the items made a nice round meal of our supper tonight.
Tuesday: Grocery day today. I went without a list, just the opposite of what we're always told to do. The truth is I had a clear idea of what I needed after a month without any proper grocery shopping being done! I spent a bit more than usual but we weren't frivolous. It was all good solid food...well except for that packet of Aldi's brand thin mints. Good! And costing far less than the Girl Scout cookies do, too.
We picked up two of those big roasters. I was contemplating ONE when John said, Buy them all! Those are good. Well I didn't have room in the freezer for all but we could certainly put one in the freezer and go ahead and cook another one for the weekend ahead. So we bought two.
I bought three packets of summer perennial bulbs.
When we came home I put away all the groceries properly. Then I made coffee. While it brewed I worked on cleaning tape marks off the guest room wall. When Katie had the room she taped up photos and CD covers and such. Over the years the tacky places have captured the dust. I used a little Goo Gone on a cloth and managed to clean a section of wall. There's a lot more to be done.
Mindful of my intent to clean the guest room, I started with clearing surfaces and putting things away. I rehung the plates above the lamps in altered spots. Tomorrow I'll work on hanging those pictures above the bed and the sconces above the dresser. I have a few more things I want to do in that room but this is a good start.
Settled in the living room with a cup of coffee.
Started planning next week's challenge menu.
We had leftovers for supper tonight. I had leftover enchiladas and John had leftover roast beef hash.
John used his new chainsaw to cut down two dead trees and cut several lengths of wood into log sections.
Wednesday: Moved some things out to the shed this morning. That opened up a little surface and floor space which always makes things appear neater. It's a very inexpensive fix.
I brought a few items indoors to use for spring decorating. I only used one of them. I'll take the rest back outdoors to the shed.
Made dinner for Mama who was here to have John do her taxes. I stretched the hamburger meat to made five patties. I just used a slice of bread, a tiny bit of milk and egg. This helped me get five patties from a bit less than a pound of meat. We only used three at our meal today. I'll have the other two for our supper.
Washed a full load of dishes in the dishwasher.
We had leftover burgers (saved from the dinner I made today) for our supper.
Thursday: I hadn't planned to make a can of sweet rolls for breakfast this morning but when I looked in the fridge drawer I noted the expiration date was past. That meant that while they might not be spoiled they would be less likely to rise. I decided to go on and prepare them rather than have them waste away. They rose beautifully. We will have sweet rolls for snacks, too.
Although I didn't put it on my menu, the weather turned off cooler. I have all the ingredients for that good Farro stew on hand and so will make that Again I am using spinach rather than Kale. It was $1.49 compared to $3.49 for Kale. I had no carrots (yep they are on my shopping list but I missed them somehow...I shall buy some tomorrow.) I have a handful of baby carrots and I'll chop those. Not quite all the carrot called for but better than none. Still find this delicious! I'm so glad that bossy little old lady at Publix demanded I try this. It's not the first time she's cornered me and from now on I'll go without urging when she's at the cooking station.
Mixed a selection of acrylic paints to paint my picture frames.
Printed off a new copy of a picture to go with the selection on the walls.
Stripped an old Easter egg wreath and used the natural colored base as a spring wreath to hang in the living room.
Added a couple of new items to my spring decorations. Everything I have used thus far was on hand, saved from trash and recycled, or reused in a new way. That's the kind of decorating I like to do.
Friday: I had a rocky start to my day. No clue why except I'm on one of those very little sleep cycles and it just seems to have brought me a down a little bit. I was gentle in my start to the day and didn't push too hard.
After reading Rhonda's post in which she mentioned the roast she cooked, I recalled the nearly full jar of pickled peppers in my fridge. I'd thought yesterday that I needed to figure out how to use them. I knew I had an Aldi chuck roast in my freezer. I set it out to thaw last night and then put in the crockpot this morning. I used 1 packet each of ranch dressing and Italian dressing dry mixes, the jar of pickled peppers and cooked on low heat. I shredded it and mixed with the juices. This made six hearty sandwiches, four of which went into the freezer for a future meal.
We went to the discount grocer after breakfast this morning to pick up turkey sausage, beef breakfast sausage and hot dogs. This store has the most consistently low price on those items and they are always in stock.
While at the grocer, we passed a huge display of 3 pound cans of black and pinto beans. I told John that was a very good price on them. It was a Hispanic brand. We got one can of black beans. This went on the pantry shelf.
John ordered another yard tool. We went through Swagbucks so I could do Shop and Earn.
After I cleared up the kitchen this afternoon, I took a short nap. Ten minutes was enough.
Bought a sheet of poster board to use as a backing in my odd sized picture frame.
Packed up a supper to carry with us on a short road trip.
Made John's work lunch for Sunday.
Rehung two of the frames I painted yesterday. I have three smaller pictures to hang on the same wall, in a different space. I'm going to wait until later in the weekend to put those up. I'm itching to make a few more changes...Ah, Spring!
What did you do this week to save? Come share with us!
Wednesday: Moved some things out to the shed this morning. That opened up a little surface and floor space which always makes things appear neater. It's a very inexpensive fix.
I brought a few items indoors to use for spring decorating. I only used one of them. I'll take the rest back outdoors to the shed.
Made dinner for Mama who was here to have John do her taxes. I stretched the hamburger meat to made five patties. I just used a slice of bread, a tiny bit of milk and egg. This helped me get five patties from a bit less than a pound of meat. We only used three at our meal today. I'll have the other two for our supper.
Washed a full load of dishes in the dishwasher.
We had leftover burgers (saved from the dinner I made today) for our supper.
Thursday: I hadn't planned to make a can of sweet rolls for breakfast this morning but when I looked in the fridge drawer I noted the expiration date was past. That meant that while they might not be spoiled they would be less likely to rise. I decided to go on and prepare them rather than have them waste away. They rose beautifully. We will have sweet rolls for snacks, too.
Although I didn't put it on my menu, the weather turned off cooler. I have all the ingredients for that good Farro stew on hand and so will make that Again I am using spinach rather than Kale. It was $1.49 compared to $3.49 for Kale. I had no carrots (yep they are on my shopping list but I missed them somehow...I shall buy some tomorrow.) I have a handful of baby carrots and I'll chop those. Not quite all the carrot called for but better than none. Still find this delicious! I'm so glad that bossy little old lady at Publix demanded I try this. It's not the first time she's cornered me and from now on I'll go without urging when she's at the cooking station.
Mixed a selection of acrylic paints to paint my picture frames.
Printed off a new copy of a picture to go with the selection on the walls.
Stripped an old Easter egg wreath and used the natural colored base as a spring wreath to hang in the living room.
Added a couple of new items to my spring decorations. Everything I have used thus far was on hand, saved from trash and recycled, or reused in a new way. That's the kind of decorating I like to do.
Friday: I had a rocky start to my day. No clue why except I'm on one of those very little sleep cycles and it just seems to have brought me a down a little bit. I was gentle in my start to the day and didn't push too hard.
After reading Rhonda's post in which she mentioned the roast she cooked, I recalled the nearly full jar of pickled peppers in my fridge. I'd thought yesterday that I needed to figure out how to use them. I knew I had an Aldi chuck roast in my freezer. I set it out to thaw last night and then put in the crockpot this morning. I used 1 packet each of ranch dressing and Italian dressing dry mixes, the jar of pickled peppers and cooked on low heat. I shredded it and mixed with the juices. This made six hearty sandwiches, four of which went into the freezer for a future meal.
We went to the discount grocer after breakfast this morning to pick up turkey sausage, beef breakfast sausage and hot dogs. This store has the most consistently low price on those items and they are always in stock.
While at the grocer, we passed a huge display of 3 pound cans of black and pinto beans. I told John that was a very good price on them. It was a Hispanic brand. We got one can of black beans. This went on the pantry shelf.
John ordered another yard tool. We went through Swagbucks so I could do Shop and Earn.
After I cleared up the kitchen this afternoon, I took a short nap. Ten minutes was enough.
Bought a sheet of poster board to use as a backing in my odd sized picture frame.
Packed up a supper to carry with us on a short road trip.
Made John's work lunch for Sunday.
Rehung two of the frames I painted yesterday. I have three smaller pictures to hang on the same wall, in a different space. I'm going to wait until later in the weekend to put those up. I'm itching to make a few more changes...Ah, Spring!
What did you do this week to save? Come share with us!
4 comments:
We haven't been near as ambitious as you two!
We rented a Redbox movie with a code and only paid 35 cents. We also popped into the grocery right next door and picked up four free Snickers bars with sale and coupons. We have been doing this most weeks and enjoying movies at home with popcorn.
We both made our goal for the entire month on Swagbucks with means we both earned $53 in Amazon gift cards. Both of us have over $400 banked. Hubby bought a Stanley power pack jump starter after all our battery troubles using some of his credit In the case of a power outage we can charge cellphones on it too which is important since we have no house line. The man who gave us a jump last Sunday morning had one and it was so, so easy to use and get our van going. Perhaps we can pay his kindness forward one day.
Strong storms came through on Wednesday night and damaged a whole side of the fence down the backyard as the result of a huge tree limb that was blown down. We went to Lowes today and purchased needed supplies for repair and asked our daughter and son in law to come help us fix it. They will be here tomorrow. While we were out we went to Aldi and purchased all needed groceries for next week for a total of $35. I am being so careful to not overbuy as we have plenty on hand. Today was all perishable foods except chili beans to make a big pot of chili for the fence fixers for lunch tomorrow. I am absolutely loving my new multi cooker crock pot. It had a bit of a learning curve but now that I have gotten that part out of the way I love being able to brown meats and veggies and then just dump in the rest of the ingredients. I was doubtful about spending so much on it and I still think they could sell it for much less but I am glad to have it since I could purchase it with Swagbucks rewards. I doubt I would have forked over $115 in cash.
I'm always happy to go in Publix and get those yummy food samples. I haven't done much shopping this week- but did pick up 75 cents a dozen eggs at Aldis. Also picked up a 99 cents jar of tartar sauce--I am hoping I can find a brand that hubby will like. I got a great deal on Renuzit air deodorizes and Dawn dish detergent. I picked up 2 hand/dish towels at the thrift store this week- paid 49 cents and 79 cents- like new. I have found you can never have too many hand/dish towels- especially since I don't use many paper towels. Got the freebie at Kroger today-- what a nice surprise- the box of Chips a Hoy thins were a big box--not some small, just a couple bites. Still eating basically out of freezer and pantry. I got 2 nice surprises this week-- a $5.00 anniversary reward from Kohls and a spend $10 & get $10 off from JC Penney. Guess I will be doing some cheap shopping next week. The peach orchard next to us has bloomed out this week-- just gorgeous. Have a great weekend.
YOu did really well. I saw that recipe for the roast too and it sounds really good. I'll be trying that out within the next few weeks also.
Delorise, I wondered how big a box since the weight on those THINS was so low. I"ll be going by to pick mine up on Wednesday.
Debbie, that roast is a good recipe. I think Rhonda's left off the dry dressing mixes which really won't change the flavor too much but will considerably lower the sodium content. It sure does make a tasty bit of meat!
Lana you got some great bargains. I'm glad all the damage you had was the fence but sorry you had any damage at all. We got wind and thunder and lightning but none of the damaging sort of winds that were north of us, which was more in line with you.
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